This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Six short years ago, Shelley Meyer was still caring for a toddler son and a modestly paid husband who woke her in the middle of the night fearing he might fail in the first head coaching job he'd ever taken.
Now, she's practically the first lady of college football.
It's a transformation that has been as dizzying as the idea that her husband, coach Urban Meyer, would be making millions of dollars and be coaching the Florida Gators tonight in the national championship game against No. 1 Ohio State - just two years after leading the Utah Utes to their greatest season ever.
"It all happened very fast,
really fast," she said. "I just can't even believe what has happened. . . . No way. How could you even think that we'd have the success in two years at Bowling Green, have the unbelievable success at Utah in two years, and then all of the sudden you're at Florida? I can't explain it."
No other coach in college football has a wife as visible as Meyer, who during her time with the Utes became something of a celebrity and role model for mothers and football fans alike.
Known for screaming herself hoarse alongside regular fans during games and embracing her role as a surrogate mother for the dozens of players on the Gator team, the attractive and energetic cheerleader has hardly let up, now that her husband is coaching in one of the most popular and heavily scrutinized leagues in the country.
Her three children are growing up fast - daughters Nicole and Gigi are 15 and 12 years old now, and son Nathan is 8 - but she continues to tend not only to her family, but also to several charity duties, volunteer work at her daughters' schools, and teaching at the university's college of nursing one day a week.
Oh, and she still works out every morning.
"It's a busy life," she said. "You just do it. I have a Franklin Planner that's really fat. And we just do it. . . . I love what we do. Sometimes, it gets really chaotic and hectic and I wish it would slow down. But we get it done, somehow."
One way is aggressive scheduling.
It's almost impossible to do during the football season, but the family can count on family night with Urban and his players every Thursday, and the girls have "date night" with their father every Wednesday, when he takes them alternately to their favorite restaurant for a special night out.
Of course, even that's a little different for the girls now - especially Nicole, who's old enough to remember going out in Utah.
"What she has to deal with now is people kind of pushing her out of the way and lining themselves up with Urban and then asking her to take a picture," Shelley Meyer said.
"At Utah, it wasn't that big a deal," Nicole Meyer added, "and now, it's just huge."
At home, however, coach Meyer remains, simply, dad.
The children smile and giggle when talking about Meyer when he's off the clock, wrestling with his son or insisting on watching "Hoosiers" whenever the family gathers to watch a movie.
"He's so different at home," Gigi said. "He's so serious [in public], but at home, he's just, like, crazy. He's an actual dad. . . . We'll be trying to watch TV and he'll come and jump on you and won't leave you alone and let you watch it. Then he gets mad if you tell him to stop."
The only downside of moving into a million-dollar lifestyle with so much attention focused on them has been the criticism, the family said. Fans can be ruthless - and unrealistic.
"That has been the hardest thing to deal with," Shelley Meyer said. "If we don't score a certain amount of points and we still win the game, you're still getting criticized because it wasn't enough. That's really hard to take, and it just makes me sad."
What makes her happy, however, is knowing how many old friends from Utah and other places her husband has coached who either have visited Gainesville the past two years or ventured to Arizona to see a championship game that even she didn't imagine would include the Gators - especially back when her husband woke her up after taking his first job, worried that he might never win a game.
"That has been the best part," she said.
Now, it's time to start thinking about the national championship. Winning it would take Meyer's career to yet another stratospheric level.
"I can't even go there," Shelley Meyer said. "I'm just doing everything the way we always do, every game - wear the same thing, same routine. I'm just doing it the same way. I just can't imagine what it would be like."